PASS Alarms

March 1, 2009

Anyone who has been in the fire service for more than a few months has probably, at some point in time, been involved in a fire station discussion about automatic fire alarms, and in many cases, the public's lack of appropriate response to them. We have all pulled up in front of a commercial building on an automatic fire alarm system activation response to find people still entering the building and business being conducted as usual. Or, how about pulling up to a high-rise multi-family apartment building with activated strobes visible in the elevator lobbies and faces peering out of upper-story windows watching the fire trucks pull in?

Studies of some large loss-of-life fires have shown that ignoring fire alarms, or inappropriate responses to their activation, can have deadly consequences. Yet the fire service has our own alarm that frequently results in an ignored or inappropriate response â?? an alarm from an activated PASS device.

Personal alert safety system (PASS) devices were developed to protect us, the firefighters, from a wide range of potentially life-threatening events that can occur on the fireground, including becoming lost or disoriented, becoming incapacitated and running out of air. A PASS device alarm can be activated manually, if the firefighter realizes that he or she is in trouble and needs to summon assistance, or, it will activate automatically if the device is armed and the firefighter does not move for a predetermined period, usually about 30 seconds.

The first generation of PASS devices needed to be manually turned on or armed by the firefighter wearing it and that frequently did not happen. As a result, regrettably, there were documented firefighter fatalities with the deceased members wearing PASS devices that were not turned on or armed. Subsequent generations of PASS devices have been integrated into the user's self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA); that is, they are automatically armed when the SCBA is turned on.

In addition to sounding an alarm for the circumstances mentioned above, the newer PASS devices also sound an alarm for low air. Most PASS devices have a pre-alarm feature that activates for a few seconds prior to full alarm activation to alert the wearers and let them manually reset the alarm if there is not a problem. There are also specific procedures to be followed to deactivate the PASS device when the SCBA is not being utilized or is being returned to service. However, many times, this does not happen and the result is numerous PASS alarm activations on the fireground that no one reacts or responds to.

Think about your own fireground and training operations. Have you ever been on a fireground, especially late in the incident, when personnel are removing their SCBA and setting them on the ground for a cylinder change, prior to returning them to their apparatus, and one or more of them are in alarm and nobody reacts? How about when a member of your crew (or another crew) has his or her PASS device in alarm because they have not moved for a time, yet they, and maybe those around them, are oblivious to the alarm? I have heard incident commanders giving situation or progress reports over the radio with PASS alarms sounding in the background, yet they don't seem to be concerned about it.

Some time ago, I was observing live-fire training exercises. The third firefighter on a line was removed and placed in a remote room with his PASS alarm activated. The other firefighters on his crew heard the alarm, discussed it briefly among themselves, and then continued on with their fire attack, not even realizing their partner was missing. After two or three minutes â?? an eternity if you are truly in trouble and quite possibly the difference between life and death â?? someone outside of the building realized that the alarm had been sounding for some time and deployed the rapid intervention team.

In our fire prevention and public education activities, we stress to the public the need to take fire alarms seriously and react appropriately when an alarm goes off. We practice, observe and time fire and evacuation drills. On the operations side, we normally respond to activated fire alarm systems at emergency speed, with full personal protective equipment (PPE) and SCBA, because until we confirm otherwise, we must assume that there is an actual fire. We need to eliminate complacency and pay the same serious attention to our own alarm system, the activated PASS device. This can easily be done through training and updated department procedures.

Let's start with training, since that is the most important component of this process. Every firefighter must be totally familiar with the operation of his or her SCBA and PASS device in order to be considered SCBA qualified and meet the ongoing training requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Respiratory Protection Standard. Total familiarity includes knowing:

  • Whether the PASS device is integrated into the SCBA, and if so, how it arms automatically
  • If the device is not integrated, how to manually arm it
  • How to manually activate either type of device into alarm mode
  • Duration of pre-alert or pre-alarm modes
  • How long a user must be immobile before the device goes into alarm mode
  • How to reset a pre-alert or pre-alarm signal
  • How to reset a full alarm signal
  • How to deactivate, disarm or shut down the PASS device when shutting down and/or removing the SCBA

All of these actions should be able to be performed, and should be evaluated, wearing structural firefighting gloves and with an obstructed-vision facepiece to simulate zero visibility.

Once firefighters have total familiarity with their PASS devices and can literally use them blindfolded, the training should be expanded and continued across many of the other evolutions that we do that include wearing SCBA. Whether the drill is on search and rescue, advancing lines, performing ventilation or rapid intervention team operations, there are numerous opportunities to include a training component involving the use and/or activation of a PASS device. (Be aware that your initial training efforts may be complicated by the need to change a dangerous attitude or mindset that began at the fire academy where recruits may actually be "taught" to ignore the alarms during burn-building and smoke-tower exercises!) It is important during the training to not neglect the shutting down, disarming and restoring-to-service procedure as this is where many of the false fireground alarms originate.

Now that the training aspect has been addressed, it is time to reexamine and, if necessary update, your department's standard operating procedure (SOP) on PASS alarms. The SOP needs to clearly spell out that the user must turn off his or her SCBA and fully deactivate or disarm the PASS device after exiting the building and removing same. Because of the critical firefighter safety implications involved with PASS alarm activations, and frequent false alarms, failure to do so should be considered to be a high-level or serious disciplinary offense; that is, one when even a first offense may result in time off. In addition, in order to ensure that an activated PASS device receives a response appropriate for a firefighter in distress, the SOP should dictate that if a PASS alarm sounds for more than 10 seconds anywhere on the fireground, the incident commander must declare an emergency and immediately deploy the rapid intervention team.

Studies show that one of the primary reasons that the public does not respond appropriately to an activated fire alarm is because experience has told them that most likely it is a false alarm. The same complacency is affecting the fire service because of the proliferation of non-emergency PASS alarm activations on the fireground. By making training and procedural changes, you can eliminate those false alarms and complacency and, in a meaningful way, improve fireground safety.

PETER J. FINLEY Jr. is a 30-year veteran of the fire and emergency services. He recently retired as chief of department for the Winslow Township, NJ, Fire Department. Prior to that, he served for more than 20 years with the City of Vineland, NJ, Fire Department, including 4½ years as chief of department, and six years with the Fairfax County, VA, Fire and Rescue Department. Finley has an associate's degree in fire control technology from Atlantic Community College and a bachelor's degree in fire science/administration from the University of Maryland. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program, where he received an Outstanding Research Award in 2002. He has earned numerous professional certifications and recently achieved designation as a Chief Fire Officer. Finley is president of the New Jersey Career Fire Chief's Association and an adjunct instructor in the Fire Science Program at Camden County College.

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